Walk a Kb or Two in my Moccasins- Nobody 'splained it to me like that!

Simple answers to Complex Questions and Complex Answers to Simple Questions.
In real life, I'm a Greater-Toronto (Canada) Realtor with RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd, Brokerage. I first joined RE/MAX in 1983 and was first Registered to Trade in Real Estate in Ontario in 1974.
Formerly known as "Two-Finger Ramblings of a Forensic Acuitant turned Community Synthesizer"

Saturday, December 24, 2011

GovGen misinterpreted King-Byng precedent --who's advising Her NOW!

Executive Summary

-The current Minority/Coalition crisis will end up on the Governor General's desk.

-Ms Jean must Stand Up to the self-serving individuals proffering advice to Her (particularly the elected ones) or in my opinion, She must Stand Down - acknowledging that She is unequal to the challenges of the full, as-written, authority of the Highest Office in the land.

-Ms Jean must tell Mr Harper to form an All-the-Talents Cabinet with members called from all the parties represented in the Lower House and to stipulate that this form of ministry will govern for the term set out in Mr Harper's Fixed Elections Date legislation, irrespective of who holds the office of Prime Minister and further stipulate that the Office of Clerk of the Privy Council will be returned to the control of the Governor General (simply by rescinding Order in Council P.C. 1040-1121 -see link below).

I respectfully ask the Canadian people to endorse this proposed solution.

--Your Excellency, Rt Hon. Mr Harper, Editors, M. Belanger,

In my opinion, Ms Jean and her advisors mis-read the precedent established in the King-Byng affair when she granted Mr Harper a dissolution in September (never mind his fixed elections legislation).

Please consider:

King-Byng was much different - in this much-cited-but-never-fully-recounted example, the opposition Conservatives held more seats than Mr King, the Liberal PM, who had, legally-retained/stubbornly-refused-to-relinquish, power after "a defeat" in the popular election.

excerpt from Claude Bélanger,Department of History,Marianopolis College:"Mackenzie King's Liberals had come to office in December of 1921 (party standings: Liberals 117, Progressives 65, Conservatives 50, Labor 2, and Independent 1) but had been unable to achieve a majority because the Western provinces had supported a third party which promised reforms demanded in the West.Despite its minority position, the King government stayed in power until 1925 particularly because the Progressives continuously supported them. An election was called by King for October 29, 1925, under the pretext that the government lacked "a clear majority" and could not dispatch certain important business. The voters responded poorly to the appeal of the government. The results were: Conservatives 116, Liberals 101, Progressives 24, Labor 2, Independents 2."

A carefully reading of the whole backgrounder by M Belanger (or any), will lead the observer to conclude that based on this historic example (verified by our recent 2008 results), the Governor General should NOT have granted Mr Harper a dissolution in Sept 2008, but instead should have considered THEN what is being bounced around NOW regarding the existence of another Member of the Commons who might enjoy the "confidence of the House" and be able to continue conducting the business of a Parliament that Mr Harper had declared to be beyond his patience and/or ability.

Please excuse my impertinence, bordering on hubris.
I am trying not to be disrespectful to anyone or towards any political Officeholder.

I am a fiercely loyal Canadian, 55yrs old and a self-taught student of Canadian history, law and politics.
I am a strict BNA/Constitutionalist.
I see a gargantuan procedural mess unfolding - I am compelled to do something to stop it.

The ONLY Office in Canada with the power to contain this me-first, damn-the-consequences for Canada & Parliament schmozzle is the Governor General.
The GG has been delegated the powers of the Queen (Queen in Council expired with 1982) in the Letters Patent 1947.
The GG heads the Executive (ss.9-16) and needs not follow anyone's advice since this is not a s.13 (GG in Council) circumstance.

By no fault of Her own, Ms M Jean holds an Office that has been stripped of its independent advisors (the Privy Council) by Order in Council P.C. 1940-1121 .
Thereby, since 1940, control over the Privy Council (intended to supervise and contain the Legislative Order) has fallen into the hands of the Prime Minister.

Further, and again with all due respect, and by no fault of Her/their own, Ms Jean and most of Her predecessors since 1950 have been unfit for their Office, they were purposely chosen as recommendations to the Queen, by the then Prime Ministers knowing that they would be subservient to the office of Prime Minister.

This is the opposite of the intention of the British Crown-in-Council and the 1864-7 BNA Act framers.

I make these statements not to hurt Ms Jean personally or professionally and politically but to re-establish the as-written provisions of the BNA/Constitution 1867.

The current Minority/Coalition crisis will end up on the Governor General's desk.

Ms Jean must Stand Up to the self-serving individuals proffering advice to Her (particularly the elected ones) or, in my opinion, She must Stand Down - acknowledging that She is unequal to the challenges of the full, as-written, authority of the Highest Office in the land.

Ms Jean must tell Mr Harper to form an All-the-Talents Cabinet with members called from all the parties represented in the Lower House and to stipulate that this form of ministry will govern for the term set out in Mr Harper's Fixed Elections Date legislation, irrespective of who holds the office of Prime Minister and further stipulate that the Office of Clerk of the Privy Council will be returned to the control of the Governor General (simply by rescinding Order in Council P.C. 1040-1121).

I respectfully ask the Canadian people to endorse this proposed solution.

Every cloud has a silver lining

ELECT THE NEXT GOVERNOR GENERAL - Give Him/Her a REAL Mandate

May we hope that the silver lining of this Minority vs Coalition debacle will be that public attention can be focussed on the method of selecting the next person to be recommended to the Queen as holder of Canada's greatest office, our TRUE Executive Head & National Leader - the Governor General.

If the GovGen was atop the Canadian power totem, all this wrangling in the lowest order of gov't would be minor details in the running of the country - barely needing the attention of the press and/or our Constitutionally empowered Executive.The partisan 'leadership' of the biggest bunch of charlatans in the elected assembly WAS NEVER intended to run Canada.

My preference is for that person to be found by a popular election held simultaneous with every-other General Election, with the term of Office to start 365 days after the House returns (Since any Citizen could run, a single-transferable ballot system -asking voters for their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc choices all at once - would be the only way to get even a 50% result).

IMHO only by electing the GG can we hope to have an Officeholder with the mandate to return our bastardized-by MacKenzie-King/too-much-PMO/PCO-power government system to the supremely-suitable and wonderfully-crafted, as-written format described in 1867. Perhaps you'd like to read the Plain Language Version of it